KeySearch vs SE Ranking (2026): which should you pick?

Pick KeySearch if

• Fits if you run a blog or niche site and want the main SEO jobs for about $20 a month
• Works for hunting long-tail keywords a small site can rank for

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you track lots of keywords, as Starter stops at 80 and Pro at 200
• Skip it if you want keyword data in your other tools, as there's no API on record
• Not for you if you want longer than a week to try it, as there's no free plan
• Watch out: Foresight and team sharing are Pro only, at $40 a month on yearly billing
• Watch out: AI writing runs on monthly credits, 5,000 on Starter, and the listing doesn't say if the trial needs a card

Pick SE Ranking if

• Fits if you track lots of keywords daily across several client sites
• Works for small marketing teams who want research, audits and tracking under one login

Look elsewhere if

• Pricey if you're one person with one site, as Core is $103.20 a month even on yearly billing and there's no lower plan
• Tight if you need old data, since Core keeps 6 months of history and has 1 manager seat; extra seats start at $16 a month
• Pricey if you want white-label reports, as the Agency Pack is $69 a month extra and sold on yearly billing only
• Watch out: deeper AI search tracking is an add-on at $71.20 a month on yearly billing ($89 monthly)
• Watch out: payments are non-refundable unless the service wasn't delivered as promised, and there's no desktop or phone app

KeySearch

• There is no free plan after the 7-day trial, only a set of free stand-alone tools.
• Rank tracking is capped at 80 keywords on Starter and 200 on Pro, low next to dedicated rank trackers.
• Foresight and team collaboration are only on the Pro plan.
• Refunds can be requested within 30 days of the first purchase, according to the terms.

SE Ranking

• Core keeps only 6 months of historical data and includes 1 manager seat; extra seats start at $16 a month.
• White-label reports need the Agency Pack, $69 a month and sold on annual billing only.
• Deeper AI search tracking is an add-on at $71.20 a month billed annually ($89 billed monthly).
• Payments are non-refundable except where the service was not delivered as promised.

KeySearch

Keyword research and difficulty

Look up search volume, cost per click and a difficulty score for keywords by language and country, with filters for long-tail ideas.

Live SERP and competitor analysis

See which pages rank for a keyword and what keywords a rival site ranks for, along with a backlink checker and URL metrics.

Foresight recommendations

On the Pro plan, Foresight reads a site's niche, authority and rankings and suggests keywords it could win and pages worth improving.

AI content assistant

Builds outlines and drafts from the pages that already rank and checks topic coverage. AI use is metered in monthly credits.

Rank tracking and site audit

Track positions for 80 or 200 keywords depending on plan, and audit up to 2,000 or 5,000 pages a month for technical problems.

YouTube research

Research keywords for YouTube and look at the videos that perform well in a niche.

SE Ranking

Rank Tracker

Track rankings daily across major search engines, devices and locations, with Google top-100 tracking and share of voice.

Keyword, competitor and backlink research

Research keywords, competitors' traffic and backlinks with no usage caps on either plan, plus backlink monitoring.

Website audit

Crawl sites for technical issues, from 250,000 pages a month on Core to 2 million on Growth, with an on-page checker.

AI visibility tracking

Track 100 or 250 prompts a day across five AI models, with AI source tracking and AI competitor research by domain.

Reports and local SEO

Report Builder (10 or 30 reports), and local tools covering 3 locations, map rank tracking and listings in 100+ directories.

API and MCP

Plans include 25,000 or 100,000 research API credits a month and MCP access for querying the data from AI assistants.

KeySearch

• Starter Plan$20

  per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)

  200 keyword searches a day, 80 tracked keywords, 2,000 audited pages and 5,000 AI credits a month. No Foresight.

• Pro Plan$40

  per month, billed annually ($48 billed monthly)

  500 keyword searches a day, 200 tracked keywords, 5,000 audited pages, 15,000 AI credits a month, Foresight and team sharing.

SE Ranking

• Core$103.20

  per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly)

  1 manager seat, 10 projects, 2,000 keywords and 100 AI prompts tracked daily, 250,000 audit pages a month and 6 months of history.

• Growth$223.20

  per month, billed annually ($279 billed monthly)

  3 manager seats, 30 projects, 5,000 keywords and 250 prompts daily, 2 million audit pages, all-time history and guest links.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Custom limits and terms, full API and advanced integrations, through sales.

KeySearch

• Annual discount

  Two months free with annual billing

  KeySearch's pricing section offers annual billing with 2 months free: Starter is $20 a month instead of $24, and Pro $40 instead of $48.

SE Ranking

• Annual discount

  Save 20% with annual billing

  SE Ranking's pricing page lists Core at $103.20 a month billed annually instead of $129 monthly, and Growth at $223.20 instead of $279.